OUR OPINION: Dog abuser gets back in the game

Not everyone deserves a second chance. Sometimes people do something so horrific that their actions should never be forgiven.

Michael Vick very nearly reaches that level. Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback who went to prison for running a dog-fighting operation, was signed to a contract last week by the Philadelphia Eagles. Roars of protests have ensued, and they’re likely to continue for as long as Vick puts on pads and a helmet.

It says something about Americans’ love for animals and the seriousness of Vick’s crimes that most agree it would be far easier for him to return if he had committed murder.

Vick brutalized dogs in ghastly ways. He did it repeatedly. He enjoyed doing it. He sought to profit from it.

How can a person be that cruel? In an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Vick shed a little light, saying that dog-fighting was commonplace in the neighborhood where he grew up. It hardly excuses what he did, but it does help to understand how a person can become so monstrous.

Commissioner Roger Goodell would not have been wrong if he had ruled Vick ineligible. His job is to guard the league’s image and integrity, and barring a player who sullied the NFL’s reputation would have been easily defensible.

In the end, we lean toward Goodell’s decision to let Vick play — not because he has “paid his dues,” but because keeping Vick in the spotlight is the best way to prevent children from becoming Michael Vicks.

Vick could have been banished, and we would rarely have heard of him again. And hundreds, maybe thousands of children would grow up in the same environment he did and think nothing of watching dogs maul each other.

Instead, he will use his high profile to reach young people and tell them why what he did was terrible and how it nearly ruined his life. Some will take the message to heart, and dogs will be spared from torture.